On the Town: There was excitement this week as guests at the opening of the Dorothy Cross exhibition at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin climbed the stairs to view her work since the early 1980s.
"She shows the most extraordinary powers of invention and tremendous fertility of imagination," said the writer and critic, Marina Warner, who opened the show. "She challenges many received ideas and gives us new sensations and responses, and she's often very witty. While the work very definitely attacks ideas, its very bold. It's also very light and deft and full of wit."
Andrew McLellan, chief executive of Opera Theatre Company, which participated in last year's staging of the Latin hymn, Stabat Mater, on Valentia Island, Co Kerry, in a production conceived and produced by Cross, said: "It was so stimulating to work with her. She was so inspiring. I think her ideas are always huge. It was a journey into the unknown for us. She, through sheer force of personality and charisma, forced us to see it through. She made it happen."
Soprano Lynda Lee, who sang at the three outdoor performances on Valentia Island last August, recalled the steady rain in the slate quarry and grotto. "It was fantastic," she said. The current exhibition includes a film of the production.
Others who came to celebrate the opening of the first large-scale exhibition of Cross's work in this country included her brother, Tom Cross, professor of zoology at UCC, with his wife, Mary; her sister, Jane Jolly, with her twin sons, Derek and Andrew Jolly; her aunt, Kate Kinmonth Warner; and her mother, also named Dorothy Cross.
Dorothy Cross continues at Imma until Sun, Sept 11